If you like your short intense intervals you will love this popular new piece of equipment, most places like Virgin active Fitness first, Nuffield health, Pure gym ,Third space & smaller health chains all have one, several in fact in my own local.

"The Woodway curve treadmill" is self powered by you to generate movement so no electricity, you have to work more so will burn allot more calories, better postural alignment & core stabilisation work, if like me you want to do some sprint training this is a must .By the way I got a top speed of 24.6mph I think with some training I could possible hit 26.5 don’t want to end up on my backside though so going to take my time & improve my Tekkers!.

Are you a runner? how do you improve your training?

If running works for you & your cardio is consistent / improving, perhaps the weight is coming off & your times are getting better for your say 5k /10k run, your getting nearer to your personal fitness goals, then great stick to it,Most runners I know in the gym will do weight training as they need to be stronger to do better times as mixing it up provides stimulus for change, as does foam rolling & stretching.

What about weights? When you are using explosive power (Olympic lifting) time & time again it utilities your cardio, lifting just 30kg above your head (bar 20kg + 5kg either side) requires a lot of energy.This will undoubtedly improve your cardio, if you have not done any of this type of lifting (starting off with a deadlift, moving to squats & progressing to cleans, power cleans & bear complex you are missing out).The same principle applies for this awesome piece of equipment, your balance is totally tested as Bio mechanically it forces you to run better, also your faith that you can complete 1km in the same time you would normally do on a conventional treadmill or running outside is definitely tested.

Short Interval sessions can make you faster!

Yes that's true, a runner who always runs at a steady pace will only ever be good at running steadily. By steady running you improve your aerobic base, tone-up and often lose weight, but you don’t really get faster.The key to improving your speed is to run at speeds faster than you would race at. However, you can only run at these speeds for small periods of time. This is why you should break up the distance in which you intend running at the faster pace.For example, if you normally go for a steady 5Km run you could change it to 5 lots of 1km efforts, running the 1km at a significantly faster pace than you would if you were running the whole 5km in one go.The important thing about interval running is to pick the pace up and force yourself to increase the leg speed. Then you will need to recover, as you won’t be able to keep it up for too long.

The recovery period will vary depending on your fitness level and what type of interval session you are running. Naturally, most beginners will need a lot more recovery than seasoned runners and the longer the interval run, the longer the recovery period will have to be.

One of the tool I use with my clients is the "Lifefitness treadmills” the Intervals on a USB memory Key are a great tool, or you simply connect via the internet.Just go to the Lifefitness website, log in, program in either your time or distance & set up your intervals, its really easy, along with a Polar heart rate monitor & your iPhone or Android you can save your run directly to your phone or USB Stick & see the breakdown of your run & chart your progress.

I hope you enjoyed the blog, set yourself up for success with small steps.I'll do a separate blog showing you how intervals are done, enjoy the run!